DETROIT - Tobias Harris was the Detroit Pistons' leading scorer and only 25, one of the players the organization could have built the team around in the future.

But the opportunity to acquire a star like Blake Griffin made Harris expendable.

Harris returned to Detroit Friday as a Los Angeles Clipper and has no hard feelings.

"It's part of the game," Harris said. "I wish the Pistons nothing but the best. Not just the Pistons, but the whole City of Detroit. Any type of situation I'm in, I embrace it fully, whether that be on the basketball court, off the court. I invest a lot into that. When I got traded, it was hard for me to take at first, but at the same time I understand what was going on."

Harris scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the Clippers' 108-95 victory at Little Caesars Arena. It was Detroit's first loss with Griffin in the lineup (4-1), while the Clippers improved to 3-0 with Harris and Avery Bradley (10 points, eight rebounds) on the floor.

Harris was at home preparing for the next night's game against Cleveland when he learned of the trade.

"We were on a rough stretch (eight-game losing streak), and a lot of times shake-ups happen," Harris said. "It's never a complete surprise, but at the same time it's a part of the game."

Harris appeared in 157 games over parts of three seasons in Detroit, averaging 16.8 points.

"I had great times here," Harris said. "I respect every person through this organization that has helped me become who I am today."

He thanked coach Stan Van Gundy and owner Tom Gores on Instagram following the trade.

"It's bigger than basketball," Harris said. "It was more other stuff off the court, in the community, giving back. Me and Coach Van Gundy's relationship is further than basketball. Him and his wife have been able to do amazing things off the court, so it was like a family-type thing, so of course I'm going to thank those people. They've helped me become a great person and helped me do great things."

Asked how he is integrating Harris into the offense, Clippers coach Doc Rivers said, "Easy, I said 'Tobias, shoot.'

Rivers likes Harris' upside.

"He's really young and he's really good," Rivers said. "What he'll learn next is people will start game-planning for him, which they do, and he'll be able to beat that, too. The better you become the more they prepare for you.

"He's really an aggressive player, that's what we want him to be. He can go downhill, he can post, he can shoot the three. He has all phases of offense and that's what we need him to do."

Praise for Griffin: Rivers said Griffin was the key to putting the Clippers on the map. It had been a moribund franchise for three decades before he arrived.

"They had been in the league for 1,000 years and you really never heard of them, and when you did hear of them it probably wasn't anything good," Rivers said. "Blake was first, and then (Chris Paul) came. Those two guys, along with (DeAndre Jordan's) maturation is what allowed us to have a nice run. We had a hell of a run, we just couldn't get past the second round. As far as putting the franchise into a winning state, Blake was a key player."